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Dragonboat crew off to world championships in Italy

Editor: From Fort Langley to the Club Crew World Dragonboat Championships in Ravenna, Italy, excitement is mounting as the dragonboat crew Abreast In A Boat — FORT-itude puts on the final polishing touches to their long and strenuous season leading up to the world championships in Ravenna in early September.

The all-woman crew of 25 from all over the Lower Mainland is one of six crews of the Abreast In A Boat Society, the world’s first breast cancer dragonboat team ( See: www.abreastinaboat.com).

A diagnosis of breast cancer brought these women, spanning five generations (aged from the 30s to 70s) together in a bond so tight that it can only be explained as “one of the best things that has happened in my life.”

The women work out on and off the water and have really used their “fortitude” to condition themselves for the upcoming challenge.

FORT-itude won a silver medal in the 2013 national competition, earning them a berth at this international competition.

Carol Short and Cheryl Watson,

Abreast In A Boat - FORT-Itude

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